Method of manufacturing sanitary napkins



July 4, 1939. c. G, JOA, 2,164,408

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SANITARY NAFKINS Fil'ed March 15, 1937 INVENTOR CZZKT 6. JOAZ (01 M M4 WM ATTORNEYS Patented July 1939 UNITED STATES METHOD or MANUFACTURING SANITARY NAP KINS

Curt G. Joa, Sheboygan Falls, Wis., assignor to Curt G. Joa, Inc., Sheboygan Falls, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application March 13, 1937, Serial No. 130,686

Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in sanitary napkins and methods of manufacture thereof.

The primary objects of the invention include 5 the provision of an improved sanitary napkin effecting great economiesin the use of the gauze wrapper while at the same time greatly increasing the ease of disposal and eliminating accidental loss of the pad and avoiding the exposure of any raw edge of the gauze wrapping material. It is the present practice to overlap the margins of the gauze wrapper very substantially beneath the pad and to depend on the adhesion between the wide overlapping areas of gauze and upon the fact that the ends of said areas are caught by the supporting pins or other means, to prevent the gauze from unfolding. in use. While the sanitary napkins thus made are in quite universal use, the excess gauze required is very large; It 20 is proposed by the present invention to provide a pad using a minimum amount of material in the gauze wrapper by loosely joining the margins of the wrapper with a chain or loop stitch comprising a single thread to provide a strong connection between the margins of the wrapper during use but readily withdrawable from the wrapper to facilitate disposal.

There is not now available on the market any sanitary napkin which may easily'be disposed of 30 with safety in an ordinary toilet. The gauze wrapper if it remains in place, tends to prevent the fibres of the pad from separating and consequently stoppage of the toilet frequently results.

One of the great advantages of the construction 35 hereinafter to be disclosed lies in the fact that the withdrawal of the thread automatically opens wide the margins of the gauze, leaving the pad material fully exposed and wholly unconfined.

The incorporation of such a thread in the 40 wrapper might be thought to offer great difliculties. One solution of this problem involves rolling or folding the pad lengthwise into semitubular form during or immediately following the application of the wrapper thereto, thus providing temporarily an excess amount of wrapper stock to permit the edges of the wrapper to be turned to one side where they can be stitched without any interference between the pad and the sewing 50 equipment.

I am thus able to reduce the amount of gauze by twenty-five to thirty percent while providing a sanitary napkin greatly more satisfactory in use and also more readily disposable than the v 5 existing products.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective showing a com pleted sanitary napkin embodying the present invention.

Fig. 2 is aview on an enlarged scale showing a transverse section through the wrapped pad of the napkin shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view in perspective showing the thread in process of removal preliminary to the disposal of the napkin.

Figs. 4 and 5 are similar views in cross section showing successive portions of .a table and successive stages in the manufacture of a. sanitary napkin with a wrapper stitched in accordance with this invention.

Figs. 6 and '7 are corresponding views in cross section through a sanitary napkin showing steps in a modified embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view partially in perspective and partially in section showing a sanitary napkin embodying a still further modified embodiment of the invention.

Like parts are identified by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

The material of which the pad 5 iscomposed is not important, in a broad sense, to the present invention. It may be assumed to be either cotton, or the more conventional multi-ply creped tissue which is known commercially as cellu-, cotton or a loose fibrous filler such as pulp fiufl.

The pad 5 is encased in a' tubular covering 6 which projects beyond the pad to provide the end tabs 1 and 8. In accordance with the usual practice this covering may be made of a coarse mesh cotton gauze.

While the margins of the gauze may be overlapped as much as desired, it is'one of the objects of this invention to save material, and I have found that practically no overlap is necessary. Even $4 of overlap will give all required strength. Iprefer that the raw edges 9 and I0 of the gauze will .be folded over upon themselves so that the edges to be stitched together by the thread 12 will be turned edges. The turned edges are preferably laid together in face contact with the folds extending in the same direction, as shown in Fig. 4, before being stitched. One of the advantages of the present construction consists in the fact that no raw edges of the gauze material are exposed. Consequently there is no tendency to catch or unravel.

By creasing the pad 5 longitudinally it will be possible to so reduce its demands upon the gauze covering as to provide an excessof gauze material suflicient so that the turned edges along the'mar- ,v

gins of the gauze may be laid together and sewed with a loose stitch throughout the length of the the sanitary napkin and its tabs. Ordinarily this willbe done before the sanitary napkins are separated from each other in the process of manufacture, it being understood that the ordinary manufacture of such napkins involves the deposit of the pads upon the gauze at spaced intervals, the enfolding of the successive pads in the gauze, and the subsequent cutting of the gauze between pads as disclosed in my application Serial No. 54,669.

It is entirely possible to fold the individual pads by hand either while they remain encased in the uncut gauze or after the individual napkins have been severed from each other. I prefer, however, that this step be performed mechanically through mechanism which is not claimed in this particular application but is illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 4 to be disclosed and claimed in my companion case.

The table l5 over which the endless web of gauze and enfolded pads are progressing in the course of sanitary napkin manufacture, is formed upwardlyand over atits margin to provide a guide I6 in the nature of a split tube. A central former I! supports the face of each successive pad while its sides are forced around the former by the guide-portion l6 of the table. This leaves the marginal portions 9 and ll] of the gauze free of the pad and in properly overlapped relation to each other to receive a thread shown at l2 in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, looped stitched or woven therein by the sewing machine unit diagrammatically illustrated at 20 in Fig. 4. a When the article progresses to the point where it is relieved of engagement between the former ll and the split tubular guide portion l6 of the table, the pad will flatten out by its own resiliency, or may be flattened, thus drawing the stitched gauze flat on to the surface of the pad in the form shown in the first three views of the drawing.

Thus I am able to do my stitching beside rather than on top of the pad, and upon the conclusion of the stitching operatic-n, by simply turning the pad and allowing it to flatten, I draw the resulting seam to a position centrally disposed on the face of the pad.

Assuming that these steps have been performed upon an endless web of gauze, as distinguished from an individual piece thereof, the result would be the production of a continuous gauze tubing within which the several pads are disposed at spaced intervals. The sanitary napkins are now completed by simply severing the gauze tube intermediate the pads, and preferably folding the free ends of the short tubular sections over the pad for packing and shipment in the usual manner.

In the construction shown in Figs. '6 and '7, the pad is so positioned on the gauze that the seam between the side margins of the gauze will occur at the side of the pad rather than centrally on its face. Fig. 6 shows the arrangement at the time the seam is formed, and Fig. '7 shows how the seam .may be thrust inwardly between successive plies of the pad where it will tend to be held by the high friction which exists between the gauze and the ceilucotton.

It is also possible to stitch the gauze completely through the pad as shown in Fig. 8. The rows of stitching may be along the center line of the pad or adjacent a side margin thereof, or in all three places, as shown in Fig. 8. A certain compacting of the pad will result from this process but, while this construction is not preferred, it is nevertheless a usable arrangement.

In all of the various constructions herein dis-1 closed the sanitary napkin will comprise a tubular gauze cover, the tubular form of the gauze being attributable to the seam which holds it about the pad. The fact that each pad, is encased in a tube of substantial strength makes the resulting napkin much strongerthan the napkins previously known to the art. In the ordinary sanitary napkin the end tabs must be made long so that they can be folded over to ensure that every overlapping ply of the free margins of the gauze will be caught by the securing pins. Otherwise the pad will slip from the gauze while in use. Such an accident not infrequently happens in the use of conventional napkins, despite all precautions. It is impossible in the use of a napkin embodying the-present invention.

Consequently the savings effected by the elimination of overlap may also be increased by shortening the end tabs if desired. It has been found practicable to use in a napkin embodying the present invention a gauze wrapper measuring 18" x 6%" as compared with the conventional wrapper measuring at least 20" x 9''.

Thus' twenty-five to thirty percent of the gauze may easily be saved while at the sametime producing a stronger and more trouble-free sanitary napkin and increasing the convenience with which it may be used.

When it becomes necessary to dispose of the sanitary napkin the operator simply graspsthe thread as indicated in Fig. 3 and pulls. In the case of some commercial types of loop or chain stitch it is necessary to-pull the thread at a particular end. If, however, the thread is woven in place or has been stitched in the conventional single thread loop stitch, it will ordinarily come free when grasped at the end. The chain or loop stitch is such that without any more pressure than is exerted merely by the weight of the sanitary napkin the entire thread may be pulled therefrom. It is one of the characteristics of the device that as the thread is pulled from the margins of the gauze it pulls the said margins free of thepad so that the wrapper completely opens up, fully exposing the pad to. the action of the water into which the pad is dropped for disposal.

While my improved method of manufacture has been fully described in various parts of this specification, I will briefly summarize it as follows.

The gauze wrapping material is stitched, preferably at its margins, to comprise a tube encasing the pad. This step is preferably taken while the gauze comprises a continuous web and the successive pads are spaced therein. The stitching is preferably done at one side of the pad, but it may 'also be done right through the pad as shown in Fig. 8. If the location of the pad on the gauze is such that the seam is to fall on the .face of the pad, the pad is turned on its side and longitudinally folded to give clearance for the stitching operation as shown in Fig. 4. When the pad is released and flattened, the seam will fall on the face thereof as shown in Fig. 2.

I claim:

1. A method of making sanitary napkins which includes the longitudinal folding of the pad, drawing about the folded pad a wrapping material therefor, portions of such material being drawn to extend beyond the-edges of the pad at the side to which the margins of the pad project, stitching together the aforesaid portions of the wrapping material at a point to provide a tube accommodating the normal cross section of the pad, and thereafter flattening the pad to fill the tube of wrapping material thus formed and to draw the seam onto the flat face of the pad.

2. The method of making a sanitary napkin which consists in depositing pads at spaced intervals on a web of wrapping material, folding the successive pads longitudinally to form their faces concave and drawing out the margins of said web to extend beyond the edges of the longitudinally folded pads, joining the extended margins of the web in tubular form about the pads adjacent their concave faces, flattening-the successive pads to fill the tube of wrapping material and to draw the joined margins onto the face of the pad which was concave during the joining of such margins, and subsequently severing the tube intermediate the severed pads.

3. The'method 'of making a sanitary napkin which consists in preforming pads, feeding a wrapper web, depositing the pads at spaced intervals approximately centrally on the web whereby the margins of theweb are foldable onto the exposed faces of the successive pads, wrapping the web about the pads while progressively folding the successive pads longitudinally to form their said faces concave and to free the margins of the web to project beyond the margins of the pads, joining the freed margins of the web in tubular form about the pads, flattening the successive pads to fill the tube of wrapping material and to draw the joined margins thereof onto the said face of the pads and subsequently severing the tube of wrapping -material intermediate the spaced pads.

4. The method of making a sanitary napkin which consists in preforming pads, feeding a web of wrapping material, delivering the pads at spaced intervals onto the web of wrapping material, enveloping the spaced pads in the web of wrapping material while longitudinally folding successive pads to free the margins of the web of wrapping material to project beyond the pads, releasably joining the freed margins of the wrapping material about the folded pads in the form of a tube wherein such pads are spaced, and subsequently flattening the successive pads to fill the tube and severing the tube intermediate the spaced pads.

5. The method of making a sanitary napkin.

of the wrapping material to constitute a tubular 1 

